User interface and processing workflow questions. Using the built-in viewer. Navigating batches. Manual indexing options.
Exclude Index Field from Index Log
Many times when outputting a Log file via CSV, XML, TXT, etc. there will be index fields that are required in the Job Configuration, but not desired to be output in the Index Log. In those cases those fields can be excluded from the Index Log with a “~” character at the end of the Index Field Name.
To do this go into the Job Options/Job Settings Wizard, go to the Index tab/step, find the Index field that you want to exclude from the Index Log and add this to the end of the field name: ~
EX. The original Index Name is “OCR Text” and that field should be excluded from the Index Log, so it doesn’t appear. This field should be changed to “OCR Text~”.
Turn Off Prompts and Pop Ups on Job Configurations
SimpleIndex has a variety of prompts and pop ups that must be clicked that come up by default. These are normally needed by most users to set certain options or perform certain tasks based on the Job Configuration settings that have been set-up. These can be forced to be turned off though with a command line script. This can be configured in the settings for a shortcut that points to the Job Configuration that you would like to suppress the prompts and pop ups on.
Instructions to set Job Configuration shortcut to suppress all prompts and pop-ups:
- Right click on the Job Configuration file and select “Create shortcut” or “Sent to>Desktop”
- Find the shortcut, Right click on the shortcut and select “Properties”
- In the “Target:” field change the text in the field.
- Here is an example of the original text in the “Target:” field of a Job Configuration shortcut: “C:\SimpleIndex\Scan and OCR.sic”
- Here is what this section would be changed to for suppressing the prompts:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\SimpleIndex\SimpleIndex.exe” /c:”C:\SimpleIndex\Scan and OCR.sic” /s - The “/s” in this example is the command to suppress prompts and pop ups in SimpleIndex.
- The path to the Job Configuration file that you want to use will need to be set to the proper destination and filename, including file type extension.
Change the Font Size of Index Fields
Index fields have a default 8 point font size, but this can be changed if required for visibility. You can change this by editing a registry file in the Registry Editor and set any font size you would like.
To make this change follow these instructions
- Close out of SimpleIndex entirely
- Open the Windows Registry by going to the Windows Search and searching for “RegEdit”
- Go to this location in the Registry Folder Tree: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\SimpleIndex\Misc
- In this window you will see a key called “IndexFontSize”.
- Open this file and change the value to the font size you would like and then click OK.
- Close and reopen SimpleIndex to see the change in effect.
Large documents (>500 pg) Slow to Process – Workaround
When working with PDF image files containing a high number of pages (typically in excess of 500, but can vary by file and PC running the job) SimpleIndex may run into performance issues as it attempts to hold all of those pages in memory and perform the requested operations (full-text OCR in particular can tax a system in these circumstances).
A workaround in this scenario is to convert the large PDF to a folder of smaller PDFs files that can be managed more easily. In order to minimize the impact on production and tax the user(s) with extra steps, you can use a third-party splitting tool that can be called from the Command Line. One such option that has worked well is PDFSplitter from CoolUtils
One way to automate this process is to use PDFSplitter’s command line ability in conjunction with SimpleIndex’s Pre-processing function. For simplicity let’s consider a 600 page PDF with a filename generated at the time of scanning using indexes provided on a coversheet or keyed by an operator. The goal now is to take that large file and perform a full-text conversion on it.
Our SimpleIndex job, Full Page OCR.sic let’s say, launches and before getting to work calls PDFSplitter from the Pre-processing step with a command such as
PDFSplitter.exe C:\Images\Smith – John – Medical History.pdf C:\Images\Pages\ -cp 100
PDFSplitter will run and break that document every 100 pages creating 6 PDFs in the folder C:\Images\Pages. It maintains the original filename, simply adding “001-100” and so on to the name. After PDFSplitter is complete the Full Page OCR job begins its process and, given that the original filename is still part of the split files’ naming schema, it can produce one full-text PDF in the final output folder.
Index With Non-Latin Character Sets
By default SimpleIndex uses the ANSI character set to display and edit captured OCR data, index field values and full-text OCR. This works for all languages based on the Latin alphabet (English, French, Spanish, German, etc.)
To index documents in other languages like Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Arabic and other non-Latin alphabets, set the default character set using this registry key. If the key is not set correctly then Unicode text will show up as ??????????.
Use Notepad to edit the “Charset” value from the sample setting below and save it to a .reg file. Then double-click the .reg file to install (Administrator privileges required).
You can download the .reg file here but you still need to edit in Notepad to set the Charset value before installing.
If you are on a 32-bit operating system be sure to remove the extra “\WOW6432Node” from the registry path.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\SimpleIndex\Misc]“Charset”=”1”
| Charset Name | Charset Value |
| ANSI_CHARSET (Latin) | 0 |
| DEFAULT_CHARSET | 1 |
| SYMBOL_CHARSET | 2 |
| SHIFTJIS_CHARSET (Japanese) | 128 |
| HANGUL_CHARSET (Korean) | 129 |
| GB2312_CHARSET (Simplified Chinese) | 134 |
| CHINESEBIG5_CHARSET (Chinese) | 136 |
| GREEK_CHARSET (Greek) | 161 |
| TURKISH_CHARSET (Turkish) | 162 |
| HEBREW_CHARSET (Hebrew) | 177 |
| ARABIC_CHARSET (Arabic) | 178 |
| BALTIC_CHARSET (Baltic) | 186 |
| RUSSIAN_CHARSET (Russian) | 204 |
| THAI_CHARSET (Thai) | 222 |
| EE_CHARSET | 238 |
| OEM_CHARSET | 255 |
The full list of values is at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc194829.aspx.
Skip to Blank Index on Save Index
If you would like to have SimpleIndex automatically go to the next page with a blank field and highlight that field when the Save Index button or Enter a change to the XML text of the Job Configuration is needed. This can be useful to quickly move to the next document that has a blank Index field.
Instructions to set Skip to Blank index on Save Index:
- Right click on the Job Configuration file that you would like to suppress the prompt on and select Open With>Notepad
- Search the XML settings text open in Notepad for this term:
<SKIP_TO_NEXT_BLANK> - Set the value between from “False” to “True”
<SKIP_TO_NEXT_BLANK>True</SKIP_TO_NEXT_BLANK> - Save and close the file.
Stop Autorun When Double Clicking Configuration
SimpleIndex jobs can be launched from an icon, just like opening a Word document saved on your desktop. However when you do this the default behavior is to automatically run the job file once it opens in SimpleIndex. If you just want to open the job without running it, follow these instructions:
1. Create a shortcut to the configuration by right clicking on the configuration file and selecting “Create shortcut”
2. Right click on the Shortcut that was just created and saved and select “Properties”
3. In the “Target” field put the following:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\SimpleIndex\SimpleIndex.exe” /c:”<Full Path to Configuration file>” /m
Example:
“C:\Program Files (x86)\SimpleIndex\SimpleIndex.exe” /c:”C:\Images\test.sic” /m
Overlap of SimpleView Viewer in SimpleIndex Display
Occasionally on certain Windows displays the SimpleView viewer sub-window in SimpleIndex will extend over the Index fields causing the user to not be able to interact with them or click Save All/Save Index or use the Mouse Actions. This seems to happen more with ultra-high resolution monitors like a 4K monitors or the Surface Pro. You will see something like this:
The fix for this is relatively simple by using the High DPI Scaling in Windows. You can find the instructions for this below.
Windows 10 Instructions:
- Open Windows File Explorer and go to this folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\SimpleIndex
- Find the SimpleIndex.exe
- Right click on the SimpleIndex.exe and then select Properties
- Go to the Compatibility tab
- Click the button called “Change high DPI settings”
- Check the boxes labelled “Use this setting to fix scaling problems for this program instead of the one in Settings” and “Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by:”
Windows 7 Instructions:
- Open Windows File Explorer and go to this folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\SimpleIndex
- Find the SimpleIndex.exe
- Right click on the SimpleIndex.exe and then select Properties
- Go to the Compatibility tab
- Check “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings”
Once you make this change reopen SimpleIndex and you display will be correct.
Notes: After enabling this setting there might some oddities with the toolbars and navigation buttons, but they are all readable and working, and the menus work. The old job settings has several issues with this, but it has been replaced with the wizard which does not.
Forward Blank Index Fields
To turn on the carry Forward when you blank out an index field do the following:
1. Right click on the configuration file and open with Notepad or another text editor.
2. Search for this XML value: FORWARD_BLANK
3. Set the value to true
Viewer Reset for SimpleIndex
If you have any issues with the SimpleView viewer within SimpleIndex not displaying properly or the grid size being off you can reset it by doing the following.
1. Go to the Registry by searching for regedit
2. Locate this folder path:
hkey_current_user\software\vb and vba applications\simpleindex
OR
hkey_current_user\software\vb and vba program settings\simpleindex
3. Delete the SimpleIndex folder from that path, which deletes all the saved user settings and reverts back to default.
Max List Size
If you have a field that has a list and it loads very slowly then the size of the list that it loads needs to be limited.
You first open the Registry or regedit. Then you find this location: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SimpleIndex\Misc
Then you right click in the space to the right and select New>String Value
Then you name this new entry this: MaxListSize
Then you double click on it and set the size of the list that it loads. We suggest somewhere between 1000 and 5000
MISSING file move with multiple files
If you want to move the MISSING files from the Output folder to another folder and create multiple MISSING files then use this script for the .bat file:
ren “C:\Users\dgraves.META\Desktop\Folder1\Missing.pdf” Missing-%date:~10,4%%date:~7,2%%date:~4,2%_%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%.PDF
Move “C:\Users\dgraves.META\Desktop\Folder1\Missing*.pdf” “C:\Users\dgraves.META\Desktop\Folder2”
This will rename the file to MISSING-DATE_TIME and then move it to another folder.
In the middle of a batch that was scanned our computer is receiving an error, from that point to the end of the batch it’s not saved. Is this a SimpleIndex problem or windows?
This usually indicates an overload of the memory of the computer, which causes an error. The usual solution to this issue is to scan batches with a fewer number of pages.
- Published in Indexing & UI
If it possible for index values to be keyed twice to ensure accuracy (double-key verification)?
There are two ways to do double-key verification in SimpleIndex.
When there is one operator, simply configure 2 index fields with the same name. The index value can only be saved if the 2 fields match.
If there are multiple operators, you can accomplish the same thing using “Database Update Mode”. The first user keys the value, and that is saved in the database to Field 1. The 2nd user uses a configuration that has two fields with the same name–one that reads the value from Field 1 and another that is mapped to Field 2 (initially blank). The 2nd user keys the value into Field 2 and will only be allowed to save it if the value matches Field 1.
We recommend contacting our professional services department before attempting to setup double-key verification in a multi-user environment, as this is one of the more complicated configurations that SimpleIndex supports.
- Published in Indexing & UI
Acrobat PDF files will not display in SimpleIndex, and when I exit the program it crashes.
This is a known compatibility issue between the browser plug-ins for Acrobat 6 (Full) and Acrobat 7 (Reader). When both programs are installed on the same machine, and automatic updates are applied, registration for the browser plug-in is corrupted.
This problem affects any application using the Acrobat browser plug-in, including Internet Explorer and other web browsers.
The short-term solution is to uninstall and reinstall Acrobat 7. It is recommended you download the latest version from Adobe to prevent the problem from recurring when the next update is installed.
The long-term solution is to upgrade to Acrobat 7 Standard or Pro and uninstall Acrobat 6.
- Published in Indexing & UI
I accidentally clicked something and now I can’t see my image in SimpleIndex. What did I do and how can I fix it?
In the main SimpleIndex window you will see a sidebar on the right side, and in the middle of that sidebar are buttons that control the Mouse Action. By default the Mouse Action is set to Zoom In on the image so when you need to magnify something on an image you can quickly and easily do that.
If you clicked and dragged your mouse accidentally over the image you zoomed in on it, so to return the image to full size click on the View menu at the top of the window, then click on Full Page. The keyboard shortcut to do this is also listed beside the menu command, in this case it is Ctrl + F.
- Published in Fixes for Common Problems, Indexing & UI
Are installation and training options available for SimpleIndex?
SimpleSoftware professional services will be happy to design and configure your first scanning and indexing process free with the purchase of Annual Maintenance. We will do this online using GotoMeeting web conferencing software so you can learn to setup and use the software as we work. We will even do the setup during the demo period, with no charge if you decide not to buy!
Basic setup and training takes about an hour for most jobs. More complicated workflows involving database lookups and exports, dynamic OCR data capture and other advanced features are not included with maintenance. Our professional services division will be happy to assist you with these at a competitive hourly rate.
On-site installation and training is available from our Value-Added Resellers. Click here to find an Authorized Dealer near you.
Contact us to get a professional services quote for your project.
- Published in Indexing & UI, Licensing & Installation
How do you configure a field to select from a list of possible values?
List fields are populated using a text file or database field containing the values for that list. The text file scenario will be described first.
To configure a list field, go to the Index tab in the Job Options. Create a list field by selecting “List” for the field type and give it a name. In the “List File/Field” setting for this field, put the full path or UNC to the text file containing the list or click “Set” to browse to the file. If you have not created a file, you can put the path where you want the file stored here and click the “Edit” button. This will open the file in Notepad; new files will prompt you to create them.
On each line of the text file you will put one of the possible values that you want to be able to select from while you are indexing with SimpleIndex. You can copy this information from another source and paste it into the text file.
Save the file in Notepad and close it. The List field is now configured!
To use a database field, your configuration must be connected to a database using the settings on the Database tab. Any fields defined as “List” on the Index tab that have a corresponding field mapped on the Database tab will use the unique values from that field to populate the list.
You can check “Only allow values in list” to disallow users from entering a value not in the list.
Once the List index field is configured properly you can select the values from a drop down after scanning that appear in the main SimpleIndex window while indexing. It also makes the field autofill the closest match from the list based on the characters that you type in that field.
- Published in Indexing & UI
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